Category Archives: United Kingdom (U.K.)

UK launches cyber-operation against Russian disinformation on COVID-19 vaccine, report says

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The United Kingdom’s equivalent of the National Security Agency is actively trying to disrupt Russian attempts to cast doubt about attempts to develop a reliable coronavirus vaccine, the Times of London reported early Monday. The U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is using digital tools originally developed to tackle online propaganda and recruitment material from the Islamic State, sources told the newspaper. GCHQ declined to confirm or deny the existence of the cyber-operation, the Times said. “GCHQ has been told to take out antivaxers online and on social media,” a government source told The Times. “There are ways they have used to monitor and disrupt terrorist propaganda.” The sources who spoke to the Times noted the GCHQ operation only has the authority to disrupt information “from state adversaries,” and not information posted online by ordinary people. It’s unclear whether the U.S. government is mounting similar campaigns against foreign disinformation related to […]

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Chinese cyber power is neck-and-neck with U.S., Harvard research finds

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As conventional wisdom goes, experts tend to rank the U.S ahead of China, U.K., Iran, North Korea, Russia, in terms of how strong it is when it comes to cyberspace. But a new study from Harvard University’s Belfer Center shows that China has closed the gap on the U.S. in three key categories: surveillance, cyber defense, and its efforts to build up its commercial cyber sector. “A lot of people, Americans in particular, will think that the U.S., the U.K., France, Israel are more advanced than China when it comes to cyber power,” Eric Rosenbach, the Co-Director of Harvard’s Belfer Center, told CyberScoop. “Our study shows it’s just not the case and that China is very sophisticated and almost at a peer level with the U.S.” Overall, China’s cyber power is only second to the U.S., according to the research, which was shared exclusively with CyberScoop. But the study also found […]

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After hackers nearly stole $1M from soccer team, UK agency warns of sporting sector’s vulnerabilities

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As one of the most popular soccer leagues on the planet, the English Premier League rakes in billions of dollars every year, in part by attracting star players through a cutthroat transfer market. The multimillion-dollar negotiations can make or break a season. Suffice to say that sending more than a $1 million to a fake team for a player they don’t have would be a setback. That’s nearly what happened to one of the league’s teams, though, after scammers hacked into the email account of the club’s managing director, according to a report released Thursday by the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre. The only thing that stopped the money transfer from going through was a fraud marker on the crooks’ bank account. Government officials did not specify which team was targeted. It is one of a handful of security incidents in a report that U.K. cybersecurity experts are using to highlight how various […]

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UK ‘almost certain’ that 2019 election was target of Russian disinformation operation

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British officials expressed confidence that Russian operatives tried to interfere in the U.K.’s most recent general election by using social media to promote documents that were stolen and leaked from the government. Dominic Raab, the U.K.’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, said in a statement Thursday that “it is almost certain that Russian actors” aimed to intervene in the 2019 election in which Boris Johnson defeated Jeremy Corbyn in the race for prime minister. The campaign utilized “illicitly acquired” government documents about the U.K.-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which were posted on Reddit and promoted elsewhere in an apparent attempt to influence potential voters’ opinions. “There is an ongoing criminal investigation and it would be inappropriate for us to say anything further at this point,” Raab said in a statement. “The Government reserves the right to respond with appropriate measures in the future.” The attribution is a reference to Operation Secondary Infektion, […]

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Russian government hackers targeting coronavirus vaccine research, UK, US and Canada warn

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The Russian government hacking group known as Cozy Bear or APT29 has been targeting coronavirus vaccine research, U.K., U.S., and Canadian government officials said Thursday morning. The hackers have been trying to breach programs in all three countries, the officials said in a security assessment issued by the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Agencies from the U.S. and Canada contributed to the effort. The hacking is aimed predominantly at “government, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets,” the NCSC said in the assessment. A senior official with the U.S. National Security Agency urged organizations to pay attention to the technical details in the document. “APT29 has a long history of targeting governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy organizations for intelligence gain so we encourage everyone to take this threat seriously and apply the mitigations issued in the advisory,” NSA Cybersecurity Director Anne Neuberger said in a separate statement. State-backed hackers worldwide are interested in targeting research […]

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